Editing Autia (section)

====Orgrillon Domain====

Far to the north, in a land of long nights and longer winters, sits the lands of the Orgrillon Domain.

This rough, windswept land is the home of a rough society. The Orgrillon are something akin to Ogres. In fact, they are the distant relatives of the primitive and brutish clans far to the south, being the uncorrupted and still proud originators of that crude race. Larger and more intelligent, they built a society of strict law which often incorporates heavy corporal punishment. Long lived and prideful, the remaining Orgrillon are small in number, only being a fraction of their former splendor. The size of lands they occupy may be deceiving, but it is largely barren and flat, with mountains making up the northern third of their territory.

They have no magic, and any youth born with signs of it are left in the empty tundra to die.

They despise humanity, seeing them as upstarts and usurpers. Indeed they maintain that they once held vast lands of all forms and ruled over peoples and creatures of all varieties. If this is true, it was so long ago that it was never recorded by the race of men. Perhaps their diminutive cousins in the south, the ogres, are some remnant of this ancient expanse.
Fortunately for nearly all other beings, they no longer have the numbers to threaten the wider world and have long fallen behind the empires of man in the advancement of weaponry and technology.

They are long lived and short tempered. Even in their diminished state, they should not be under estimated and a foray into their lands is fraught with danger.

The Orgrillon, while capable of much brutality and being very martial and physical are far more advanced than the ogre clans. They build massive stone structures and fortifications, the likes of which many in the world could never hope to replicate.

They do not like to sail, and are distrustful of the seas. They subsist off of great herds of shaggy haired beasts. Their diet is nearly entirely carnivorous.
There are few trees in their lands, forests are thin and sparse, but they have an abundance of mineral resources.

They worship no gods, considering the practice to have contributed to the fall from greatness.

The Orgrillon currently have a decentralized state. In the past they were jointly ruled by a court of the strongest and most experienced warriors and commanders of their people. These leaders were known as the Krolgar, a term being analogous with general or lord. Amongst these, one would serve as the highest authority, acting as a sort of dictator or overlord. This individual was known as the Gorkargin. This ruler was elected by the assembly of Krolgar, usually for their martial or tactical prowess, though in more peaceful times the Gorkargin could be selected for great feats such as building grand fortresses or other domestic achievements.
The Gorkargin essentially held their position for life, but they could be forced to relinquish the position if a large enough number of the Krolgar deemed them ill suited for the job. The Gorkargin had the ability to contest this by a request of combat. Should he defeat a worthy challenger, he could then petition to retain his post. Often the Krolgar assumed to be the best candidate for the position of Gorkargin would be selected for this fight, but any could participate. In theory, every single Krolgar in the assembly could engage the Gorkargin in single combat until the matter was settled. Usually, however, the issue was resolved without going to such extreme lengths with plenty of sitting overlords simply accepting the ruling of the assembly without much confrontation. Although at least a single fight was common on such occasions.

As their power waned, internal strife hastened the crumbling of their expansive hold on the wider lands. This strife would manifested as chaotic and fractious assemblies, with many Gorkargin being replaced or killed in rapid succession.
Eventually their lands and people diminished, and the number of Krolgar became far fewer than in their golden age. The assembly still convenes semi-regularly, but it has been a considerable time since a Gorkargin has been selected. The remaining Krolgar have taken to simply administering their individual territories without an overarching authority while maintaining their connections and identity as a single people.

Military of the Orgrillon Domain

The Orgrillons wage war in nearly the same manner that they have for thousands of years. Having never developed as far technologically as humanity, they still rely on strong formations with traditional albeit large weaponry. For the majority of their history, their sheer size and strength alone made them nigh unstoppable in warfare. A single Orgrillon can be physical a match for four men by itself, and their armor is often too thick for the hand weapons of the smaller races to penetrate. A single blow from one of the brutes is often enough to devastate a man. This means gaps in their armor were often the only sensible targets for their foes.

The structure of the military is to have their forces organized into divisions of 1,000 warriors. These are prominently infantry forces with supplementary units mixed in for more flexibility. Multiple division will often serve together when a large battle or conflict is anticipated.

The main means of engagement is a strong block formation, with the first two rows carrying large shields while behind them the preferred two handed axes and hammers are wielded. Starting from the third row back, each warrior carries a pair of six foot long javelins, which an average orgrillon can hurl 100 yards to devastating effect. These weapons can impale two men at a time when they hit their mark. The formation will march forward steadily to structured chants, with the javelins being thrown as they advance to weaken and disheartened the enemy units before an all out charge of the entire force, attempting to use their sheer size and strength to break the enemy through fear or the devastation of the impact.

The shields of the first two rows of the formation are incredibly durable and made of solid metal. While they Orgrillons have found themselves outmatched by the firearms and modern weaponry of humanity, the shields have proven to be capable of deflecting most small arms fire with ease, though larger armaments penetrate with less issue.

To supplement their forces, the divisions are often accompanied by large and powerful ballistas. These weapons have significant range and fire bolts as large as the trunks are great trees, which can level columns of enemy units when hit directly. These ballistas have been noted to sink wooden warships when they penetrate the hulls and can tear holes in walls of less than formidable structures. These weapons are often pushed along the rear of the infantry formations and begin to fire on the enemy while the steady march closes the distance to begin using their javelins.

Some of these weapons are structured to fore large boulders instead of deadly bolts. While these tend to have less range they are capable of inflicting significant damage with the tumbling rocks the size of grown men.

In addition to the steady and disciplined infantry that comprises the bulk of their armies, they Orgrillons also tend to bring some of their beasts of burden to war with them.

While an Orgrillon has a large stride and is capable of quickly crossing significant ground, they fight in tight and disciplined formations and often forgoe speed for cohesion. To compensate for the shortcomings of such a fighting style, they often drive herds of their woolly beasts to battle before them. These creatures are used to disrupt the enemy before the battle commences or are driven around the sides of primary infantry formations to harass and weaken the enemy forces from the sides.

All told, the tactics and weaponry of the Orgrillons are nearly archaic when compared to the war machines and firearms of humanity, and their lack of magic was a significant factor in their fall to the expansion of the elves.

While a single rifle shot is not likely enough to bring down an Orgrillon, a dozen certainly is, and humanities population has grown without end and the large empires have more than enough weapons of war to make up the difference. Gone are the days when the tribes and petty kingdoms of men could only resist with the strength of their own arms and bodies, and with them went the sheer supremacy of the Orgrillon race.

While a division of 1,000 Orgrillons is a physical match for a much larger force they now must contend with rows of guns, cannons, tanks, and all manner of technological and destructive machines.

They are still secure in what is left of their Domain, but alone they have little hope of taking on the full might of a human superpower and could never reclaim their empire, let alone the rest of Dead Man's Hand. While a human empire invading their domain without their full might would surely prove folly, the Ogre-kind themselves lack the means of truly waging an offensive war as well.